Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov
Just to give you a feeling for some of the energies that are running hot in Ukraine. This is Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov who wants victory at all costs.
Will Do Everything Within My Power to Ensure Your Children Don’t Live
March 22, 2022 by
Gail, I’d say that advocating for genocide is “Racist, Much?” 2.0 isn’t it?
Where’s the outrage from the ACLU, Anti-Defamation League, ANTIFA, the media, etc?
Here in Washington state, civilians apparently run to war in the Ukraine:
Excerpt:
Nearly two decades ago, Carl Larson served in the Army as American troops toppled Saddam Hussein in a war that ignited home-front protests, claimed the lives of 4,418 U.S. service members by the end of 2010 and unleashed widespread sectarian violence in Iraq.
Now 47, the Snohomish County resident is back in a war zone, this time to help the Ukrainian people in their fierce defense against Russian invaders.
Larson says he has been inspired by what he sees as the stark moral clarity of preventing the slaughter of civilians and thwarting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal of occupying an independent nation.
“This is our generation’s call to duty. Our grandfathers fought and defeated Hitler, and now it’s our turn,” Larson said in a phone interview from Ukraine. “There is no ambiguity here.”
More here: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2022-03-22/washington-veteran-faces-uneasy-entry-into-ukraine-5435195.html
Clearly, irony is lost on Mr Larson.
He has the clarity of the clown…
Ah, George, I took such heat for pointing out that the Muslims are Amalek. Well, behold Amalek. Bitter, deranged bile of this vintage usually emanates from the ummah. Sharafmal is no exception. Putting him on the air is throwing gasoline on fire.
Perhaps the Russian forces in the Ukraine will encounter him . . .
Well, if I had to guess, being his name is Akhmed I imagine he is of –how shall I put this delicately?–non-Christian descent.
I’m not sure why this blog continues to support Russia’s efforts to “cancel” Ukraine.
So you can see there are two sides to this conflict.
Yes, and only one of them is invading a sovereign nation with lethal military force. We generally refer to that side as “the bad one”, in whichever conflict may be happening at the time.
That’s why they say “looks are deceiving,” although not so much in this case. I would say the “bad” one is the one who fraternizes with your enemies, houses lethal weapons on your border, and holds your people hostage.
Do you know what “sovereign” means? It means you hold a seat in the United Nations. That’s it. They used to refer to themselves as a sovereign democracy but all that’s changed now.
An invasion is a military offensive in which sizable number of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objectives of establishing or re-establishing control, retaliation for real or perceived actions, liberation of previously lost territory, forcing the partition of a country, gaining concessions or access to natural resources or strategic positions, effecting a change in the ruling government, or any combination thereof.
Russia doesn’t want to invade Ukraine. It wants to be able to live with Ukraine and allow the Russian-speaking people who want to be part of Russia to go.
Ukraine cannot possibly overcome Russia. NATO and the EU are not going to help them. Ukraine can stop the fighting NOW, today, right this minute. The problem is, they don’t want to. But they have no choice. By not agreeing to the following, they are prolonging the suffering. But this is the way they’ve chosen to “roll,” as they say.
– Ukraine must stop fighting
– Amend its constitution to guarantee neutrality (like Switzerland)
– Formally cede Crimea to Russia (made up of mostly ethnic Russians)
– Recognize the 2014 independence of the Russian-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine
If Ukraine enshrines neutrality in its constitution — which would prevent it from joining NATO or the European Union — and accepts Russia’s territorial demands, it will remain an “independent state that will live as it wants.”
Except when the one doing the invading of a sovereign nation is the US/NATO, right? Like Iraq invasion, Afghanistan invasion, Libya invasion, Serbia bombing, Yugoslavia bombing. Oh but US/NATO was justified for . . . reasons.
The US/NATO has been violating official treaties with Russia not to expand NATO for decades. The aggressive strategy is playing out just like America’s Indian wars: a disgraceful string of broken treaties followed a hypocritical propaganda screaming blood-thirsty savages! war criminals! assassinate Crazy Horse!
I ask you, imagine Mexico becomes a Russia puppet through a US-backed coupe and begins to wildly escalate it’s “defensive” capability including missiles aimed at US, builds 29 bio-warfare “research” labs, begins attacking its own pro-US provinces along the Rio Grande, and then seeks official military alliance with Russia. Do you think US would negotiate for 8 years before taking military action as Russia has with Ukraine? Do you think US would do a slow methodical invasion to allow civilians to flee via secure corridors as Russia is doing? Would it be justified?
Oops! Had to brake off editing due to a doggie crisis here.. Should read “…Russia puppet through Russia-backed coupe”
“…a Russia puppet through a US-backed coupe”
This too is possible…
Read Catch-22.
If the invader is “the bad one,” who could be worse than the United States, which has invaded virtually every country on this planet, both openly and covertly?
The US and NATO provoked this war by pretending we’d back Ukraine. Ultimately Zelensky is at fault, as he continues to hold out hope that the cavalry is coming, and it’s not. The Ukrainian people suffer because Zelensky won’t simply accept the outcome that everyone knows is inevitable.
Russia is going to win and Ukraine will declare itself neutral. That is the only outcome, it is just a matter of how long Zelensky will let his people suffer before he accepts it.
If Zelensky accepts it, the AZOV will likely kill him.
He is in a classic Catch-22 situation.
He wants peace in order to survive; but,
if he makes peace, he may not survive.
Perhaps he has defected to Russia and continues to play the game to divert attention from himself. Russia will get rid of the AZOV.
At this point, Russia has to get rid of Azov. Otherwise, they’re going to infiltrate the rest of Europe and will destabilize the West with all their armaments, training and willingness to get top dollar for both.
The question is, will the EU allow the Russians to clean them out.
Prediction? how about this: should things destabilize in Europe because of these brutes, this will cause a rupture within EU/NATO between those Europeans who live on the Continent versus the Atlanticists (i.e. America, UK).
I think that was the plan all along. The US is following the 1980s playbook, hoping to draw Russia into a quagmire and bleed them dry. Making Ukraine a new Afghanistan is the plan, and Azov is the new Taliban.
Mariupol is in the hands of Russia now. Azov has been gotten rid off already.
Looks like they’re still hanging out in civilian houses. Nate? Are you around? https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/03/24/pontian-mariupol-azov-battalion/
I’m familiar with the claims, as I am with the claims that Russian armor hides for the night in neighborhoods filled with civilians to protect against Ukrainian artillery strikes. And the claims that Russia is shelling evacuation corridors. And Russia forcibly relocating Ukrainians to Russia, etc. etc.
I must say, the concept of shields is rather diminished when you know the other side has no regards for civilian casualties. Which a month into this war, it is manifestly evident that Russia does not. But then we already knew that.
Well, clearly it is not the case that Russians have no regard for civilians. If this were true, (1) why would the Ukrainian army use it as a defense mechanism, and (2) why doesn’t Russia just take Ukraine out?
If Russia had no regard for civilian casualties, they would be in Lvov by now.
Exactly.
Absolutely right, Basil. BTW, we saturated-bombed Iraq for three solid weeks before we marched into Baghdad.
Exactly wrong. You have it entirely backwards. Russia’s offensives have largely ground to a halt. Thus the change to attritional warfare and indiscriminate shelling of cities. People seem to be under the false illusion that there is some “switch” the Russians could flip in their operations to just instantly win at the cost of civilian casualties. There isn’t. They are literally doing everything they can right now short of breaking out the canned sunshine.
Russia doesn’t have the combat power or logistical capability to drive to Lviv. They haven’t even managed to take Kharkiv despite pounding the hell out of it, much less encircle Kyiv. Ukraine is constantly hitting Russian convoys in their rear area in the axis where they’ve only pushed about 90 miles into the country.
Comparisons to Iraq are inaccurate. The US did not engage in “saturation bombing”. The air campaign was predominantly PGM. And the US didn’t stand off outside of Baghdad and shell residential neighborhoods with artillery and MLRS fire. The comparison isn’t between Baghadad to Kharkiv or Mariupol, it’s more like Aleppo.
Nate, if Russia’s campaign has “ground to a halt,” then why didn’t the Ukrainians bomb the hell out of them?
That means that not only has Ukraine lost control of the air space above them, they’ve lost command-and-control capabilities on the ground. Now, the majority of their army is holed up in the East, near the Russian’s supply lines.
Three weeks ago, when Russia had a 24 mile long assault on Kiev, they were sitting ducks for an air assault or sniper fire. As for the West, they scared the crap out of NATO when they took out Yaroviv, killing over 200 “auxiliaries” as well as the entire NATO facility there.
Since then, they’ve been methodically bombing bunkers, encampments and munitions dumps.
Did they wrap this up in 72 hours? Nope. But they are wrapping it up. What’s worse for Ukraine is that no matter what the terms that are going to be discussed at the negotiating table, there’s no way that the Donbass or the Crimea is ever going to be returned to Kiev. Not only that, but liberated cities like Kherson and Mariopul will not be going back either, essentially landlocking Ukraine.
Kherson recently went to the ruble, an indication that they will never recognize Ukrainian sovereignty going forward.
Thank you, Nate, for more good analysis of the horrible situation.
Russia established air supremacy in the early hours of this war. If it were bogged down around Kiev they would have sent in large numbers of reinforcements given that they only have been using 20-30 percent of the forces available to them. Rather what they did is move their forces into place around Kiev and wait for other matters to resolve which might trigger a surrender on the part of the Kievan gov’t.
Those matters are the large percentage of the Ukrainian army encircled in the Donbass as well as matters in the south where it appears the Azov Battalion has been decimated in and around Mariupol. The war has not been fought around Kiev where most of the reporters are camped out watching the grass grow. It is being fought in the east and in the south. Only a few reporters have dared to venture south and none that I’m aware of have trekked east to the Donbass.
They were awaiting American style shock and awe in Kiev. That was never going to come because the Russians care about the infrastructure and people there much more than Americans cared about the infrastructure and people in Baghdad.
Russian losses to date have been around 1300. Were they actually slogging it out to no avail around Kiev, their losses would be much higher.
There is a question as to who you wish to believe. I choose to believe the people who haven’t been lying to me on a daily/hourly basis for the last six years about anything and everything of significance.
First, neither side has air superiority. The term that applies is contested airspace. Both sides have significant air defense assets still available, not just MANPADS. Russia has the advantage of being able to stage long-range anti-air systems in Belarus and Russia with coverage into Ukraine. As a result, Ukraine, which has a very small airforce, is running a very limited number of sorties. Russia, after taking loss rates that were unsustainable in the first week, has been doing a lot of standoff strikes from Russian airspace. But they only have so much munitions inventory to do that with. Hard choices coming up! They do appear to be attempting to increase air operations tempo in Ukraine in recent days.
Since Russia does not have air superiority and control of the skies, they have virtually zero ability to strike non-static targets in Western Ukraine. Sure, they’ve interdicted ports in the Black Sea, but have no capacity to interdict or stop supplies traveling over land from Poland. Kyiv has never stopped getting resupply.
Second, you don’t seem to understand how Ukraine is killing so many Russians. It isn’t with airstrikes. Ukraine has been using small groups of light infantry stuffed to the gills with modern anti-armor weaponry in very effective hit and run operations both against the BTGs and supply convoys. Ukraine has also done a good job at utilizing drones and effective intelligence to direct artillery and rocket fire. And, of course, the occasional leaked video of a TB2 blowing up a command post. What should really concern the Russian troops entrenching outside of Kyiv is that Ukraine is starting to receive loitering munitions.
When the convoy wasn’t moving, Ukraine had to prioritize. Again, air strikes weren’t really feasible. Like the Russians they have finite forces operating in a big country. Russia should be glad they aren’t actually fighting NATO, that would have made the highway of death look like a birthday party. The benefit of being able to hide behind nuclear weapons.
It isn’t even guaranteed Russia is going to be able to hold onto Kherson. Ukraine is counterattacking in that region right now. Russia can try to impose the ruble and do all manner of things, but none of these cities are viewing themselves as “liberated”. Which has profound consequences for Russia if their control of regions lasts long enough to reach an insurgency stage. The actual conventional war isn’t likely to end any time soon, and Russian occupying forces will, in addition to direct threats from the Ukrainian military, have to content with insurgent elements armed with modern anti-armor weapons and kamikaze drones.
It’s taken weeks to try and capture Mariupol with significant losses. And that had the advantage of geographically being very difficult for Ukraine to try and counterattack or relieve.
People also seem to not understand that Ukraine does actually have a significant number of combatants. Russia is not just fighting a small number of neo-nazis (it’s the Azov Battalion, not the Azov Division). Ukraine has also had the breathing space to start working up reservists. Russia isn’t at 3:1, at this point they aren’t even at 1:1.
If you wish to sound like a broken record, periodically claiming that the conflict is in a mopping up period, go right ahead. I reiterate that the most likely scenario is a protracted war of attrition and both sides are going to continue to suffer heavy casualties.
How many dead Russian young men is the Donbass worth anyway?
Well, one can call it whatever one likes. But there’s a reason that Ze was begging the West to implement a no-fly zone and a reason that Foggy Bottom was trying to send the Ukies a new air force. Most of their old one did not survive the initial days of the “special operation”. Now, of course, you have gamers putting up alleged footage of Ukrainian planes, anti-aircraft batteries shooting down Russian planes, etc. But it’s all bs. Here’s a somber assessment of “air superiority” in the Ukraine.
War seems to bring out delusions of grandeur but talking about Ukraine as if it has the fortitude to win a war with Russia is full-blown psychosis!
The thing is that the Russians are not attacking cities, per se. Cities, in and of themselves, are of no consequence other than symbolic. The Russians are attacking armies. You decommission a country’s army and it lacks the ability to continue resistance. With no army, Zelensky is just a comic doing standup, not a president.
I suspect that those thugs may be holding Zelensky’s wife and children as hostages.
You may be right. He may be getting squeezed from both sides.
Fr, I suspect you are correct.
How you characterize the current situation in Ukraine depends on where you start the narrative. If you only go back as far as February 2022 then it is easy to conclude, as you do, that Russia “is invading a sovereign nation with lethal military force.”
But go back a bit further, to 2014-2015, and consider the 7 or 8 years since then during which the Ukrainian Army was shelling the Donbas region, using “lethal military force.” There was also shelling coming from the east side of the line of control. The result was 14,000 casualties. According to some sources, “the vast majority – roughly 80 per cent – of live-fire (shelling and gunfire) civilian casualties occur in areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists.”* In other words, 80 percent of the casualties were due to hostile munitions coming from the Ukrainian Army side of the line.
Now go back just a bit further, in order to figure out why the Donbas “rebelled” against the Ukrainian central government. And the answer to that question is that the democratically elected government, headed by Viktor Yanukovich, which had received a lot of electoral support from the Donbas, was toppled by western-backed, U.S. supported rebels. One could easily conclude that the Donbas was not “rebelling” from the central government. Instead, because the Donbas residents resisted the coup-installed regime, the new regime attacked them with “lethal military force.”
So, it’s not so simple as one might think.
*https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/visualising-dynamics-combat-and-negotiations-donbas-enruuk
Let us go back a bit further when the Poles imposed the cursed union of 1596. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic church is a creation of the Poles and the Papacy. Poland has always regarded Ukraine and Belarus as her lost lands. Their creation came back to bite them in the arse during WWII when so many Ukrainian Nationalist fighters sided with Hitler and killed Poles, Jews, and faithful Orthodox.
Well the Poles have probably gotten a large influx of OCU & other
n-a-z-i members into their country. Good luck to them handling that.
But virtually all the refugees are women and children. Plus, I notice that almost all of them are speaking Russian, not Ukrainian. It may well be that they are fleeing the Ukrainian fanatics. If they say the wrong things, their husbands and menfolk left behind may well be killed. At least, I think that is one possibility.
Fr, you may be right. Something to think about at any rate.
I still say when the dust settles, we will be surprised at how out of sync the present narrative will be proven.
We by do I say this? Because you hit a nail on the head regarding the real dear that many Ukrainians have of the thugs in Kiev.
Please define in what manner “cancel” ? There are several other blogs, websites and writers that are supporting Russia’s efforts. Whereas the West and its media have been working overtime to “cancel” Russia.
I can’t speak for the blog, but some here see the struggle as being between US/NATO and Russia rather than Russia v. Ukraine. After all, the war was precipitated by NATO’s perpetual eastward expansion to the detriment of Russia’s strategic security.
It is not often appreciated, but one can win a nuclear war without firing a shot. All you need do is place ballistic missiles close enough to the capital of an enemy country so as to enable you to decapitate it before its leadership can give the order to counter launch. All nuclear powers seek to avoid this pitfall because it would negate the value of their nuclear deterrent.
This is an existential matter, not a policy preference. Russia could not continue operating as sovereign state if the West were able to nullify its nuclear deterrent. It would become a vassal of Western powers, much like they tried to accomplish in the 1990’s Yeltsin era.
Those who see the Ukraine as David and Russia as Goliath aren’t looking through the eyes of geopolitical reality.
Russia was justified. This falls totally on the collective west The blood in Ukraine is on them. Ukraine was hijacked when a coupe overthrew the government in violation of the Budapest Memorandum. Article 3 states:
Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan or Ukraine to influence their politics.. We had the devil Nuland handing out cookies and telling the EU to FU on who should replace the democraticaly elected president. They also pulled the same color revolution in Belarus and Kazakhstan but failed. Ukraine then got weapons and training from NATO, A terror organization created to fight Russia who went from claiming to be defensive alliance to an aggressor army of regime change around the world. The 78 day bombing of Serbia targeting civilian infrastructure and tearing away Kosovo and creating the doctrine of balkanization. They then invaded one country after another have shown themselves to be gun runners and illegal. Arms dealers to proxy fighters, sanction countries without United Nations approval, bully smaller countries to go along with it or else. These are the hallmarks of state sponsored terrorism. And by doing this without impunity the collective west has started a legal precedent that has boomeranged on them. Russia is justified to invade this threat and these NATO member nations are state sponsors of terrorism and should be made to renounce such an aggressor regime change alliance
“…with impunity” I think.
That aside, your catalogue of Western crimes is accurate
Preach it!
If you do not agree with Russia’s actions, it is still a good idea to know your enemy. I suggest reading Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s lengthy comments and answers to questions that most us have.
https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1805180/
Regarding the killing of children video, Isn’t this what vaccinating our young children will do?
Looks like the Russians at least want to save Ukrainian children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNXdpQc0GYQ
Big Arrow War – A Primer
https://mobile.twitter.com/realscottritter/status/1508816667098423296
Scott Ritter explains how Russia is winning
and [the] Ukraine is losing.
This is for Nate…
The Good Soldier of Schwab?
Yuval Noah Harari | “The COVID Crisis Was the Moment
When Surveillance Started Going Under the Skin”
https://rumble.com/vxyfo5-yuval-noah-harari-the-covid-crisis-was-the-moment-when-surveillance-started.html
[Video – 07:23]
Yuval Noah Harari is a lead advisor to Klaus Schwab. Klaus Schwab is the author of COVID-19 / The Great Reset and the Founder of the World Economic Forum which is implementing the world wide Great Reset.
Watch the original October 3rd 2020 full length presentation here:
Panel Discussion: Technology and the Future of Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2z2dufityI
[Video – 50:38]